The Condition of Joan Nessan
by Namine's angel
Summary: When the Enterprise gets the task of escorting Dr. Nessan and his daughter, Joan, things go very wrong. However, something odd seems to be up with Joan. Why does she seem so calm, even after a horrid incident?  Note: Is much better than the summary says.


"Captain, Dr. Nessan and his daughter have just been beamed up." Uhura reported. The Enterprise had gotten orders about an hour ago to escort Dr. Nicholas Nessan-a brilliant archeologist-over to Lupis II so that he could study the old buildings left by the extinct civilization. He had brought his daughter along, as there was no relatives she could stay with. Thus, the Enterprise was escorting them both. "Thank you, Lieutenant." Kirk replied. "Spock, come with me so that we can give a proper greeting to our guests." Kirk ordered, getting out of his seat and going inside the elevator. "All right, Captain." Spock replied, following Kirk to the elevator.

The two got off at the next floor, went into the docking room, and saw their two passengers. Dr. Nessan looked rather old for his age,-he was thirty-five, but he looked ten years older than that-as his brown hair was getting some grey patches, and his skin was getting a few wrinkles. He wore a grey shirt, black shorts, and brown shoes. His daughter-who looked about fifteen-had short brown hair and wore a grey shirt, a pink skirt, and brown shoes. "Hello. I'm Captain Kirk of the U.S.S. Enterprise. I suppose you're Dr. Nessan?" The little old man smiled, and chuckling a little, nodded. "Yes, I'm Nicholas Nessan, and this is my daughter Joan." "H-hello." She shyly smiled. Dr. Nessan paused for a moment and then spoke again. "And I take it that your Mr. Spock?" "That I am." Spock replied.

"Well then, if it's all right, me and Joan shall just retreat to our quarters until it is time to depart." Kirk smiled. "That's quite fine with me. I think the crew would like an uneventful trip for once." Kirk then turned to Spock. "Unless you have something you want to talk to the doctor about." "Negative, Captain." "All right then. I'll see you when we reach Lupis II." Kirk and Spock then walked back to the control room, while Dr. Nessan and Joan walked to their room.

An hour later, Spock went to the break room to make his usual observations on Human behavior. Whilst a normal Human might think he was there to socialize,-to cope with his Human side-he was really just taking notes on human behavior patterns. However, today the scene in the break room was not the usual one. A large group had surrounded one of the tables that sat in the corner of the room. Sitting at the said table was Joan and another crewman, both of whom were playing Othello. So far, Joan was winning, and had taken two of the corners. Spock watched them play, as he usually didn't play Othello-although he knew the rules and the basic concept of it.

In three moves, Joan won, forty-five to fifteen. "I win again." Joan said, smiling a little. The crewman sighed and got out of the chair. "You're rather good at this, Joan." "Ah, thank you." Spock thought for a moment. He had not had the chance to observe Human behavior patterns in a female this young. This could be a good chance to pick up some new data. Spock went up to Joan. "May I play a game?" "Oh, sure. What color do you want to be?" "White." Spock replied, sitting down. "Okay then." Joan replied, setting up the pieces. Spock thought for a moment, and then placed a piece down, flipping another over.

At the beginning, all that was taken for either players was just one or two pieces per turn. By the fifth move though, things were starting to get a little more intense. Spock was winning, however, Joan held her own and managed to take a corner. Eventually, Spock won, thirty-six to twenty-four. "Not half-bad for a Human." Spock noted, glancing at the board. "How long have you been playing?" "About three or four days." Spock nodded, and wordlessly got up. The reason he had asked was because of her skill level. No normal human could play like that after only three or four days. Another thing that puzzled him about this girl was that the entire time they had been playing, not one word of small talk had left her mouth. Not that Spock was much into small talk, but for all Humans, the first time they met any Vulcan, they would usually try to make some conversation and feel what a Vulcan's personality was like. Thus, his conclusion was that something was odd with this girl. Spock had no idea what specifically was wrong with her, but seeing as there was no reason to ask, it would either come up later, or it wouldn't come up at all.

An hour later, Dr. Nessan and his daughter went into the docking room to get beamed down to the surface of Lupis II. The Enterprise would stick around for an hour to make sure that they would be all right, and then they would be off observing some of the nearby planets. Ten, fifteen, twenty minutes passed. All seemed well. Then it hit the thirty minute mark. The Enterprise got a hazy transmission from Joan stating that a part of a mountain had collapsed, and that her father was trapped under the debris. Kirk ordered Dr. McCoy and Spock to come down with him. Kirk would assess the situation and give orders based on that assessment, McCoy would provide medical help, and Spock would help console Joan if things seemed to turn for the worst. (Spock himself thought him ill-suited to this role, but he wasn't about to question the Captain.)

Thus, the three beamed down- and had their worst fears realized. Dr. Nessan was buried under six huge boulders, his daughter trying to pry one off of him. She didn't notice that they were there until McCoy called out. "Joan! What happened?" Joan paused, then turned to face them. "A huge avalanche! Apparently, the top of that mountain," She started, pointing to it. "was rather unstable. The moment my father decided to sing at the top of his lungs, the top of the mountain came crashing down on him!" Joan tried again to pull off a boulder, but her efforts were useless. Kirk stepped forward. "Go stand next to McCoy. Spock and I can handle this." Joan nodded and obeyed. While Kirk and Spock pulled off the boulders, McCoy turned to Joan. "Despite all this, you're being rather calm." Joan bit her lip and nodded.

McCoy shrugged his shoulders. Even though it was weird that Joan wasn't panicking, McCoy just put it off as shock. Finally, Kirk and Spock managed to pull off the last boulder. McCoy didn't need to check the body. It was clear that he was dead. The middle part of his body was smashed like a stepped-on grape, with his blood on the ground. "No.." Joan whispered. "I'm sorry, Joan." McCoy sadly said. Kirk sighed. "Starfleet is going to be _delighted_ with another death report. He sighed again, and then spoke to McCoy. "You take her to the medical room and see wether she'll be okay." McCoy nodded, flipped out his communicator, and had Joan and himself beamed up. Kirk sighed once more. "I wonder what we should do with the girl." "We should probably take her to the nearest base and turn her over to the authorities." Kirk nodded. "All right then." Spock paused, and then spoke again. "Captain, may I assist Dr. McCoy with Miss Nessan? After all, you did assign me the job of calming her down in case she got overly upset." Kirk nodded. "That's fine with me.

Kirk flipped open his communicator and beamed Spock and himself back to the docking room. Kirk went to his room to file the report, and Spock went over to the medical bay to assist McCoy. Inside the room, Joan was sitting on a chair, two or three feet away from where McCoy was standing. The instant he walked in, McCoy pulled him to the side. "Spock, there's something off with this girl. I'm not sure if she's like this all the time, or if it's just extreme shock, but she hasn't said a single word since we found Dr. Nessan's body. She hasn't had any emotional outbursts either." Spock paused, stared at Joan for a moment, and then turned back to McCoy. "Let me talk with her for a moment, Doctor. I've been analyzing Human behavior patterns for some time now. Perhaps I can find out what's wrong." "And what happens if even you can't find out what's wrong with her?" "Then, logically, we'll bring in the ship's psychologist."

McCoy nodded, and left the room. In his mind, Spock congratulated the doctors observance. Joan would probably be more willing to open up if there wasn't anyone else around. Spock then went and sat next to Joan. Awkwardly, he began to speak. "Joan are you...feeling alright?" Joan stared at Spock for a moment, and then hesitantly spoke, as if she was afraid. "Listen, can I tell you something without it getting out to the other crewmen?" "Of course." Joan swallowed, and then continued. "Ever since I've been born, I have been unable to feel a single emotion. No happiness. No sadness. Nothing." "Which explains why you haven't been able to show any grief for your fathers death. But why did you try to keep this a secret?" Joan sighed.

"I thought that if I were discovered, normal people would think I was a freak and put me away somewhere-or kill me. Thus, I tried very hard to simulate emotions. Even though I tried so hard, I was never very good at it. Thus, I decided to improve my mind, and hoped people wouldn't notice my lack of emotion." Joan turned to face Spock. "I guess that plan only worked halfway, but..you understand my situation at least somewhat, right?" Spock shook his head. "Despite whatever you have heard about Vulcan emotions, we do have feelings. In fact, we feel much more deeply than you humans." "Than why do you act like you don't feel anything?"

"When Vulcans first started to make a civilization, arguments broke out about how things would be run. These quarrels led to fights, and because of the higher strength of Vulcans, most of these fights led to horrid injuries, and sometimes, even death. Thus, the Vulcans turned to logic to solve their problems-just like you did. Over time, logic because the most important thing to Vulcans, and thus, they acted like they had no emotions to push logic to the front of their minds-even when they did feel." "I see...so you really do have emotions." "Like I stated earlier, all Vulcans do. It just takes a lot for them to come out." "I see. Then I truly am a freak." Joan suddenly got up. "I'll be heading back to my quarters now. Please let me know when you're ready to drop me off."

Without another word, Joan walked out of the room and went back to her quarters. Spock wondered wether he should have divulged all that information, but eventually came to conclusion that it was justified. McCoy came back into the room a few moments later. "So, what was wrong with her?" Spock hastily got up. "It seems that she was just suffering from extreme shock and denial. It's probably normal for a Human like her. Now, if you'll excuse me Doctor, I'll retire to my quarters." Spock left the room, and quickly walked back to his own quarters, realizing, that in the back of his mind, pity was forming.

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Thank you for reading this story. If you have any comments on it, please review it.

Star Trek dose not belong to me.


End file.
